Building your queries in CloudWatch Metrics Insights - Amazon CloudWatch

Building your queries in CloudWatch Metrics Insights

You can run a CloudWatch Metrics Insights query using the CloudWatch console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS SDKs. Queries run in the console are free of charge. For more information about CloudWatch pricing, see Amazon CloudWatch Pricing.

With CloudWatch Metrics Insights, you can analyze metric data across extended time periods of up to two weeks, allowing for more comprehensive historical analysis and trend identification compared to shorter retention periods. For optimal performance when querying longer time ranges, consider using larger periods (such as 5 minutes or 1 hour) to reduce the number of data points returned. When analyzing trends over the full two-week period, use aggregate functions like AVG() or MAX() in your ORDER BY clauses to efficiently identify patterns.

For more information about using the AWS SDKs to perform a Metrics Insights query, see GetMetricData.

To run a query using the CloudWatch console, follow these steps:

To query your metrics using Metrics Insights

  1. Open the CloudWatch console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Metrics, All metrics.

  3. (Optional) To run a pre-built sample query, choose Add query and select the query to run. If you are satisfied with this query, you can skip the rest of this procedure. Or, you can choose Editor to edit the sample query and then choose Run to run the modified query.

  4. To create your own query, choose Multi source query. You can then use the Builder view (default) to get a guided experience, or the Editor view if you prefer to see the query syntax. You can switch between the two views anytime and see your work in progress in both views.

    In the Builder view, click on the namespace, metric name, filter, group, order, and limit fields to browse and select possible values. You can start typing any part of the value you are looking for to filter the list presented by the builder. You can reference resource tags in the filter and group inputs.

    In the Editor view, you can write the query using the subset of SQL supported by Metrics Insights. The editor offers auto-complete options based on the characters you have typed so far, including name of resource tags for metrics that support them.

    CloudWatch Metrics Insights supports querying metrics by AWS resource tags. You can use tags to filter and group your metric data for more targeted monitoring and analysis.

    The following examples shows how you can use queries with tags.

    To see the CPU utilization for Amazon EC2 instances within your production environment:

    SELECT MAX(CPUUtilization) FROM SCHEMA("AWS/EC2") WHERE tag.env='prod'

    To group the metrics by environment using the GROUP BY clause:

    SELECT MAX(CPUUtilization) FROM SCHEMA("AWS/EC2") GROUP BY tag.env

    To use the GROUP BY clause where you specify the tag name:

    SELECT AVG(CPUUtilization) FROM "AWS/EC2" GROUP BY tag."aws:cloudformation:stack-name"

    To combine tag queries with existing metric dimensions:

    SELECT MAX(CPUUtilization) FROM SCHEMA("AWS/EC2") WHERE tag.env='prod' AND InstanceId='i-1234567890abcdef0'

  5. When you are satisfied with your query, choose Run.

  6. (Optional) Another way to edit a query that you have graphed is to choose the Graphed metrics tab and choose the edit icon next to the query formula in the Details column.

  7. (Optional) To remove a query from the graph, choose Graphed metrics and choose the X icon at the right side of the row that displays your query.